Parallel Session

Speaker : Jarod Yong

Title : From Telur to Lulus
A parallel session entitled "From Telur To Lulus: Activities Which Motivate & Prepare Students For SPM.
Together with insights to parts of the exam we can focus on to help our most challenging students to pass,
he shared a toolkit of activities developed for his classes of exclusively male students who have very low
motivation for SPM and have been handing in blank answer sheets during exams.

Parallel Session
Speaker : Mizusawaken
Title :
MizusawaKen from the National Institute of Education Singapore sharing how Singapore plans to develop
robust teacher identities for the 21st century. The new Singapore English language syllabus will include
multiliteracies, metacognition, and critical inquiry through dialogue. Moving away from an efficiency-
centered classroom to an effectiveness-based classroom, and also moving away from their infamous exam-
centered-ness. Giving students more power and stake in their learning. Students will also work with Rich
Texts: features, content, scope, and implications. He broadens the definition of text to include modern texts
that students are consuming in their daily lives, like memes & gripping photographs.

"Our job as teachers is not to demonstrate our knowledge. Our job is for our students to demonstrate their
learning."

"When planning a lesson, rather than building a "tower" where each segment of a lesson builds only on the
previous segment, build a "staircase" where subsequent sections are based partially on previous segments
AND something new."

During Q&A, he explained exams are inevitable. Rather than merely teaching what the test requires, teach
why the question requires that.

Parallel Session
Speaker : Muhammad Nazmi Rosli
Facebook : Little Lessons by Little Chuckee
Muhammad Nazmi Rosli is the kind of teacher we wish we had when we were growing up and the one that
we wish we were as teachers. He takes his lessons to legendary proportions & he's deservingly Malaysia's
Guru Adiwira PAK21. He has inspired the young & young-at-heart teachers in attendance to apply the
syllabus differently, with an eye to excite & engage one's students via one's talents. Nazmi is inventive &
makes great short videos. He applies his skills to great effect.

"Don't tell your students to reach for the sky, when there are footsteps on the moon."

Parallel Session
Speaker : Dr. Ong Puay Hoon
Dr Ong Puay Hoon of Dyslexia Association of Sarawak speaks about the struggles of children with hidden
or silent learning difficulties, focusing mainly on dyslexia, a condition that affects 10% of students. With the
diagram in the photo she explains how children with dyslexia face problems with reading. They are missing
a "word processing box" to connect what they are seeing with what they already know. Dyslexia is not a
mental disability. Students with the condition can have average, above average, or even superior
intelligence. With the proper diagnosis and intervention, they can function intellectually like students without
dyslexia. Inspired by international studies, she found that more than 50% of youths in a juvenile center in
Kuching cannot read. If students don't know how to read, they might end up being the ones who snatch our
bags. Illiteracy is a crucial issue for society as a whole.
What is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a learning disability which causes difficulty to read and spell in children as well as adults. The
word dyslexia means difficulty with written/printed words despite average/ above average intelligence and
adequate opportunities for learning. The persons affected may have poor reading, spelling, numeracy and
writing skills compared to the average non dyslexic peers.

Dyslexia Association of Sarawak

Dyslexia Association of Sarawak (DASwk) is an NGO established and registered under the Registrar of
Societies on April, 2007, to advocate for the needs of children and other individuals with dyslexia and other
learning disabilities.